sorry about that, I'm using the Netscape Mail reader piece of crap. I ought
to get my act together and go back to using pine on my FreeBSD machine 8-)
> > Well, its called "franchise internet services"... Someone with no clue
> > can now open up an ISP and made 5% of the profit, and do all the work.
> > And some people actually think they are going to make real money with
> > it. Now, I haven't seen any high-end networking products being sold on
> > QVC yet (like I actually turn on my TV or something).
>
> Heh... Right. I don't even try to fool myself. I'm not in this business
> to make money... At least not right now. Most secretaries make more than
> the people around here. :) An ISP isn't some get rich quick scheme, its
> lots of hard work, and a descently steep learning curve. Demanding that
> things be easy isn't being realistic.
Well, I'm doing it for the learning experience, and hell there was no local
access and my phone bills to access the net were pushing what I am paying for
10 lines and my 150 mile 56K (the closest ISP with a reputation worth
metioning).
> > Some of us are up to our necks making our systems better. Yesterday I
> > went out and bought new CPUs for all my 486 servers (jumped them to
> > 5x86/160s), which ran me about $300 for 6 systems, and about 6 hours of
> > tweaking the NT systems to peak performace on these processors. I
>
> Highly commendable.
Highly recommeded too - I actually like NT a little now..
> > could have put that money into getting some programmer to write a
>
> "Getting some programmer" Humm... Ok, maybe I'm just assuming a little
> too much, but shouldn't your sysasmin be at least somewhat famillar with C
> and Perl and stuff like that? It doesn't take very much to write
> something that works. (Correct solutions will require more time etc...)
I am my sysadmin, and netadmin, sales, mechanic, maid, DJ, and fincancial
analyst.
> > no-multiple-accounts stuff, and probibly screw someting up on purpose or
> > on accident and put a security hole bigger than my belt-buckle in it.
>
> Heh... He said 'hole'. Heh, heh. (Actually, I've yet to backdoor my
> radiusd, but you're right, it would be easy to mess it up big time.)
Yeah, and think about the hassles that could occur..
> You're not hitting up the right audience. I'm sure your local community
> college has some wiz kids that would be thrilled to work for you. The
> high schools probably have 4 or 5 people that would be willing to work for
> minimum wage just to work for an ISP.
Well, I can't even pay myself minimum wage. I'm a high-school aged kid myself
(17), I dropped out of the rural nightmare "School" and started this.
> > So, back up and think about what you are saying. We need to quit
> > quarreling amongst ourselves and look at the big picture.... We all
> > want features added to the Portmaster, and we all have the threat of the
> > elimination of
> > the small ISP.
>
> Well, I think I'm working for a small ISP. 72 lines is small in my book.
I'm 10, so I'm tiny... So far its been enough to keep anyone from getting a
busy, but I suspect I will have to get another 10 lines before I can buy
another CD for myself :)
> Any competent sysadmin should be able to kludge something together to
> prevent multiple logins if its such a big problem. At least a kludge can
> hold you over until Livingston gets around to adding that feature, no?
Well, I probibly could, but I won't screw with it. I haven't had any problem
that I know of with multiple logins, or anything like that, but I would like
to know its there if I wanted to use it.
> > Hell, I want the portmaster to come with a 21" monitor, and play Duke
> > Nukem 3D at 800x600 resolution full screen and full motion, for the
> > same price, but it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN..
>
> You need to read misc.forsale.computers.monitors a bit more carefully.
> We've picked up several 19" Mitsubishis for ~$600. :)
$600? Not bad. I have a true 15" diagonal edge to edge that I really like.
They had a 17" monitor in the houston paper for $199. here's the specs: 16.2"
viewable, interlaced at 1024x768, and a .38 dot pitch.... I didn't even
bother going to look.
> > So, there
>
> Indeed.
Yeah!